Paeonia 'Sarah Bernhardt' is a lovely, dark-rose to pink peony that blooms toward the end of the peony season. It was named after a prominent French actress and is a time-proven standby in the perennial garden. The buds and open flowers contain a sugary nectar beloved by ants, bees, wasps, and some species of birds. The seeds contain eliosomes — tissues ants find irresistible — that serve the plant well as a means of dispersing its seeds, as the ants do the work.

The genus name derives from Paeon, a student of Asclepias, the Greek god of medicine and healing. Apparently there was some jealously among the gods of ancient Greece, and Paeon was turned into a beautiful flowering plant in order to avoid persecution. Roots of the parental species of this cultivar,lactiflora, are highly regarded in Chinese herbal medicine. Western scientists have extracted a number of components with biological activity.